The Northeast Cover Crops Council will host a fall webinar series. The webinars will take place from 12-1 pm on Wednesdays from October 1 to November 5, 2025. Click here to register for the series. [Read more…]
Fruit Crops Edition
Seasonal updates on diseases, insects, weeds impacting tree fruit and small fruit (blueberry, cranberry, and wine grape). Fruit Pest Alerts are also available via this category feed.
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September 11, 2025 Claudia Gil Arroyo
Networks to Reduce Risk: Annie’s Project – Info session
The program, “Networks to Reduce Risk: Annie’s Project Builds Viable Farms in Urban and Rural NJ” will include four unique field trips and a dynamic, six-part webinar series. The overarching goal of this program is to improve risk management strategies of urban and rural farm business owners by connecting them with interactive educational opportunities, practical resources, and each other. This program is open to all.
Interested participants can attend an upcoming informational session to learn more about the program objectives and activities, the expected benefits for participants, and receive information about program registration. The informational session will be held online via Zoom on Wednesday, September 24, 2025, from 7:00 pm to 8:00 pm. To register for the informational session, please visit go.rutgers.edu/ntrrinfosession. Registration is required.
All questions can be directed to anniesproject@njaes.rutgers.edu.
This work is supported by the Northeast Extension Risk Management project award no. 2024-70027-42540, from the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s National Institute of Food and Agriculture. Thank you so much in advance!
September 2, 2025 Hemant Gohil and Daniel Ward
Late August and Early September Peach Varieties – New and Standard
Cooler temperatures and sunny days during the last 10 days have been ideal for full color and flavor development of late August and Early September peach varieties. Descriptions of fruit and tree characteristics, challenges, and laboratory evaluations of fruit physical and chemical properties (Table 1) of important varieties in this harvest window are described below. Understanding these characteristics is essential for selecting new varieties or replacing existing ones. Note that these varieties were evaluated in southern New Jersey; as a result, the harvest dates could be a few days later for the Central and Northern New Jersey orchards.
SelenaTM is a new yellow, melting flesh peach from the Rutgers Fruit Breeding program. It has an excellent firmness, slightly fibrous flesh around the pit, and ripens during and between ‘Jersey queen’ and ‘Encore’. Very large fruited with an attractive 50-80% mottled red and yellow background. The fruit hangs well on the tree and has an excellent balance of sweet and acidic flavor. This variety exhibits a low susceptibility to bacterial spot. Most importantly, like Gloria, the bloom is delayed and extended, resulting in trees always bearing a crop even during the hard frost years. Fruit maintains firmness after achieving commercial maturity and doesn’t drop fruit, like Encore and Jersey Queen.
TianaTM is a new yellow freestone melting flesh peach, ripening between ‘Cresthaven’ and ‘Encore’, and overlaps with Encore and Selena. It has large fruit with an excellent balance of acidity and high sweetness. Skin is attractive, 50-75% mottled red-on-yellow background. This productive variety exhibits low susceptibility to bacterial spot. Like Gloria, the bloom is delayed and extended, resulting in trees always bearing a crop even during the hard frost years. Fruit maintains its firmness on the tree after achieving commercial maturity. It is a good candidate for replacing Encore.
Jerseyqueen is a very large, oblong to ovate, 55-65% scarlet red over a yellow ground color; yellow-fleshed, freestone peach, ripening August 25-28, approximately 31 days after Redhaven. The flesh is firm with a sweet and mildly tangy flavor. The tree is very vigorous and moderately productive. Challenges: It has mild to medium susceptibility to bacterial spot. The variety is not fully productive on many peach sites and tends to produce doubles.
Flamin Fury® PF#27 is an attractive, large to very large, globose to ovate, 60-70% crimson red over a greenish yellow ground color, yellow-fleshed, freestone peach, ripening August 25-28, approximately 31 days after Redhaven. The flesh is firm with very good flavor. Challenges: It has a medium susceptibility to bacterial spot.
Flamin Fury® PF 28-007 is a large to very large, globose to ovate, 50-80% dark crimson red over greenish yellow ground color, yellow-fleshed, freestone ripening August 27-31, approximately 34 days after Redhaven. The flesh is firm to very firm with a sweet and tangy flavor, with some red around the pit. The tree is vigorous and productive with medium leaf susceptibility to bacterial spot. This is an attractive late-season variety with great size and color. Fruit hangs well and has more color than Cresthaven.
Flameprince is a medium-large, firm, attractive 50-70% crimson red over a yellow ground color, yellow/white-fleshed, freestone peach ripening September 2-5, approximately 38 days after Redhaven. The flesh is firm to very firm, sweet, and mildly tangy. The tree is moderately vigorous and productive with medium susceptibility to bacterial spot. Challenge: Note: The fruit color develops early; hence, picking by size is recommended. Three to four pickings may be required to achieve a uniform crop.
AutumnstarTM is a large, globose to slightly ovate, 60-80% crimson red over a yellowish green ground color, yellow-fleshed, freestone peach ripening September 4-7, approximately 41 days after Redhaven. The fruit is attractive for a late-season variety. Fruit size is medium-large. The flesh is firm with a good balance of sweet and acidic flavor. The tree is vigorous and productive with low susceptibility to bacterial spot. Challenge: Some tree survival problems have been noted. The performance of this variety has varied from year to year. In some years, it’s hard to size to medium-large size.
Flamin Fury PF 36 is a globose, firm, yellow-fleshed free stone peach ripening during the first week of September—one of the best late-season peach varieties. Fruit is large to very large, sweet, mildly tangy, and mostly uniform in size. The tree is vigorous and highly productive with no bacterial spot.
Augustprince is a globose to slightly ovate, 60-90% crimson red over a yellowish red ground color, yellow-fleshed freestone peach ripening August 31 to September 3 or 37 days after Redhaven. The flesh is firm to very firm, melting, stringy, with a very good, slightly acidic flavor. The tree is vigorous, productive, and has low susceptibility to bacterial spot. This sister variety ripens close to Flame Prince but consistently has better size and firmness.
Some of the excellent, yellow-fleshed varieties with few serious challenges
Encore is a firm fleshed variety with decent tolerance to bacterial spot. The tree is productive and cold-hardy, and the fruit has decent eating quality. However, it has a drop tendency. Fruit blush development has been unsatisfactory in some years. Fayette: High susceptibility to bacterial spot. A popular variety. Laurol is firm-fleshed, peach with a very sweet and tangy flavor. It has a high susceptibility to bacterial spots. It can get tiny splits at the stem end, which don’t always open, but water can get in, resulting in black gum around the pit.
White-fleshed Peach
August Rose is an attractive late-season white-fleshed peach harvested 24 days after Redhaven and a few days after the Sugar Giant. It has a longer harvest window because commercially mature fruit retains firmness on the tree. The freestone fruit is very firm and has a delicious flavor and melting texture. 60-90% medium red on cream and sizes 2 ¾ – 3 inches in diameter, somewhat nonuniform in size. It is a very sweet, low-acid fruit that hangs well on the tree after commercial maturity. This tree is tolerant of bacterial leaf spot and constriction canker. It can fill the gap between Sugar Giant and Snow Giant.
Other white-fleshed peaches have serious challenges.
Snow King is challenging to grow in New Jersey due to its high susceptibility to bacterial spots and brown rot. Snowfire has a high susceptibility to bacterial spot. Snowfire has the same problems as Snow King – low productivity and high susceptibility to bacterial spot and brown rot. It ripens earlier than Snow King and has less red skin color. Opale. It is also very susceptible to brown rot. Benedict: The flavor is subacid and very good. The tree is upright, spreading, vigorous, moderately productive, and has medium to high susceptibility to bacterial spots. This peach ripens just after Sugar Giant but is not as attractive.
Articles on Previous Season Peach and Nectarine Varieties:
- Mid-August Peach and Nectarine Varieties for New Jersey – New and Standard. https://plant-pest-advisory.rutgers.edu/mid-august-peach-and-nectarine-varieties-for-new-jersey-new-and-standard/
- Early August Peach Varieties: https://plant-pest-advisory.rutgers.edu/early-august-peach-varieties-for-new-jersey-new-and-standard/
- Early August Nectarine Varieties: https://plant-pest-advisory.rutgers.edu/early-august-nectarine-varieties-for-new-jersey-summer-beaut-sunglo-and-flavortop/
- Late-July Peach Varieties: https://plant-pest-advisory.rutgers.edu/late-july-peach-varieties-for-new-jersey-new-and-standard/
- Late-July Nectarine Varieties: https://plant-pest-advisory.rutgers.edu/late-july-nectarine-varieties-for-new-jersey-new-and-standard/
- Mid-July Nectarine Varieties: https://plant-pest-advisory.rutgers.edu/mid-july-nectarine-varieties-for-nj-silvergem-silverglo-easternglo-and-avalon/
- Mid-July Peach varieties: https://plant-pest-advisory.rutgers.edu/mid-july-peach-varieties-gala-pf-8-ball-summer-serenade-july-rose-and-pf-lucky-13/
- Early July Peach Varieties: https://plant-pest-advisory.rutgers.edu/early-july-peach-varieties-sentry-glenglo-ruby-prince-garnet-beauty-and-sugar-may/
- Late June Peach Varieties: https://plant-pest-advisory.rutgers.edu/late-june-peach-varieties-for-new-jersey-new-and-standard/
September 2, 2025 Janine Spies
Updates from EPA for Pesticide Users on How to Navigate Mitigation Measures to Protect Endangered Species
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has announced the availability of an online tool to help farmers and applicators implement mitigation measures to protect endangered species from pesticides. The mitigation measures were established to reduce exposure from pesticides for nontarget organisms as listed under the Endangered Species Act. Levels of mitigation that are required on pesticide labels can include mitigations for spray drift, runoff, and buffer zones. In April 2025, EPA released a mitigation menu website that includes information on these measures and how to calculate if a pesticide user has incorporated the number of “points” associated with the mitigation measures required by the pesticide labelling. It is the responsibility of the pesticide user to ensure that all pesticide labelling requirements are met, and requirements will vary among labels and products used.
The new tool released by EPA, the Pesticide App for Label Mitigations (PALM) is a mobile application that helps farmers and pesticide users use the EPA’s mitigation menu and stay compliant when applying pesticides for agricultural crop uses. The tool will combine relevant information and calculations needed to help farmers determine whether the necessary level of mitigation has been met before applying a pesticide.
If you are interested in learning more about the mitigation menu and available tools, the EPA will be hosting a public webinar on September 16th at 2 PM Eastern Time. Register here for the webinar.
August 29, 2025 Wes Kline
Traceability Rule (Section 204) in the Food Safety Modernization Act Delayed
The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has proposed extending the deadline for the traceability rule (Section 204) under the Food Safety Modernization Act until July 2028. The rule was to go into effect in 2026, but FDA is allowing more time for the industry to comply based on the complexity of the rule. The extension only relates to implementation. There are no proposed changes to the rule itself. Growers should take this time to discuss with their buyers how traceability will be implemented. This is a very involved rule so do not wait until the last minute to start developing your system which meets all the provisions.
Agricultural Water Assessment Questionnaires
Anna Loewald, Research Specialist with the Northeast Center for the Advancement of Food Safety (NECAFS), in collaboration with an advisory group of regional regulatory and educational partners, has developed an Agricultural Water Assessment Questionnaire. This tool guides growers through a structured series of questions- helping to simplify the assessment process and highlight risk areas.
➡️ They are available for download at the Food Safety Resource Clearinghouse: Agricultural Water Assessment Questionnaire.
Who Must Comply
Under the Produce Safety Rule (PSR), the new pre-harvest water rule requires many fresh fruit and vegetable growers to perform an agricultural water assessment. Compliance is phased in based on farm size (measured by sales):
- Over $500,000 in annual sales → Rule in effect now
- $250,000 – $500,000 → Rule takes effect in 2026
- $25,000 – $250,000 → Rule takes effect in 2027
When the Assessment Must Be Done
- At the beginning of each growing season
- Anytime there are major changes to the water system or source (e.g., switching from well to pond, damage from flooding, new distribution lines, etc.)
What the Assessment Must Include
The assessment must:
- Be written, dated, and signed by the grower or responsible party.
- Address multiple factors, such as:
- Water source and distribution system
- Protection against contamination
- Crop type and surface characteristics.
- Method and timing of water application
- Environmental conditions (weather damage, flooding, etc.)
- Water test results (used as supporting evidence, not the sole factor)
Takeaway: The agricultural water assessment is not optional for covered farms. It is a documented process that must be updated regularly and reflect real-world changes in the water system. Using tools like the NECAFS questionnaire can make this process more consistent and straightforward.
When evaluating the safety of agricultural water, multiple factors must be considered together. Testing is only one component; a holistic risk assessment includes the following:
- Location & Nature of the Water Source
- Ground water (e.g., wells) – typically lower risk if properly constructed and maintained.
- Surface water (ponds, rivers, streams) – higher risk due to potential animal access and runoff.
- Mixed sources – may require additional protective practices.
- Water Distribution System
- Underground mains or buried pipe – generally more protected.
- Above-ground pipe, lay flat, or open canals – increased potential for contamination.
- Storage tanks or reservoirs – evaluate for exposure to animals, debris, or microbial buildup.
- Protection from Contamination
- Animal intrusion (wildlife, livestock, domestic animals).
- Manure applications and proximity to fields.
- Cross-connections with untreated or wastewater.
- Agricultural Water Practices
- Methods of application: overhead irrigation, drip, flood, etc.
- Timing: interval between last irrigation and harvest (shorter intervals = higher risk).
- Crop Characteristics
- Surface type:
- Smooth/waxy (e.g., cabbage, tomatoes) → less microbial adhesion.
- Netted/rough (e.g., cantaloupe, leafy greens) → higher risk.
- Growth habit: crops close to the soil are at greater risk of contamination.
- Environmental Conditions
- Weather damage: frost cracks, hail wounds, sandblasting.
- Soil splash during rain/irrigation.
- Flood events – significant contamination risk.
- Other Considerations
- Water testing: periodic microbial testing provides valuable data but must be considered alongside the full risk profile.
- Historical issues: prior contamination events, known sources of runoff, or nearby land uses (e.g., livestock, septic systems).
Exemptions from the Agricultural Water Assessment Requirement
Not all farms are required to complete a pre-harvest water assessment under the Produce Safety Rule. If the operation meets any one of the following conditions, the assessment is not required:
- No untreated surface water is applied to covered produce.
- Untreated groundwater is used, and it is tested following the harvest/post-harvest water protocol:
- Four samples collected in the first year, tested for generic coli.
- If all results are compliant (no generic coli detected), only one sample per year is required in subsequent years.
- The public water system is the source (documentation required).
- Water is treated and monitored to ensure it remains of safe and adequate sanitary quality for its intended use.
Takeaway: Farms using treated water, municipal water, or groundwater verified with ongoing testing do not have to perform a full agricultural water assessment.
Please take the opportunity to review the questionnaires and use them to meet the requirements for the pre-harvest water assessment!
